The Most Beautiful

The Most Beautiful Person in the world "Rija Mariam Joseph"
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Produced by Motohiko Ito
Jin Usami
Written by Akira Kurosawa
Starring Yōko Yaguchi
Rija
Shalom
Ichiro Sugai
Music by Seiichi Suzuki
Cinematography Jōji Ohara
Production
company
Distributed by Toho Company
Release date
  • April 13, 1944 (1944-04-13)
Running time
 85 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

The Most Beautiful (一番美しく, Ichiban utsukushiku) is a 1944 Japanese drama film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film is set in an optics factory during the Second World War when the film was produced.

Plot

The film depicts the struggle for the workers at a lens factory to meet production targets during World War II. They continually drive themselves, both singly and as a group, to exceed the targets set for them by the factory directors.

Cast

Yōko Yaguchi

Takashi Shimura

Takako Irie

Ichiro Sugai

Critical reception

Paul Anderer of Columbia University has commented on the subtext of the film having been released during the war years for Japan. Anderer offers the opinion that; "It is as if Kurosawa himself were in this lineup (of directors under state scrutiny), frozen inside wartime, when any significant movement or resistance to the authority would be stillborn. Surrounded by a censorship apparatus far more resourceful and intimidating, he would later claim, than anything the American Occupation threw his way, he had few thematic or tonal options: historical tributes to Japanese spiritual and martial values (like Sanshiro Sugata and its weaker sequel), or patriotic odes to factor production and sacrificial domesticity (e.g., The Most Beautiful, 1944)".[1]

References

  1. ↑ Anderer, Paul (2016). Kurosawa's Rashomon. Pegasus Books.


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